"Within a few months of their runaway marriage, Tom Riddle reappeared at the manor house in Little Hangleton without his wife. The rumour flew around the neighbour­hood that he was talking of being 'hoodwinked' and 'taken in'... He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son."

Contents

Biography

Early life

"She likes looking at that Muggle. Always in the garden when he passes, peering through the hedge at him, isn't she? And last night — hanging out of the window waiting for him to ride home, wasn't she?... I got him as he went by and he didn't look so pretty with hives all over him, did he, Merope?"

Albus Dumbledore: "Very good. Personally, I am inclined to think that she used a love potion. I am sure it would have seemed more romantic to her, and I do not think it would have been very difficult, some hot day, when Riddle was riding alone, to persuade him to take a drink of water."

It was speculated by Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter that Merope used the Imperius Curse on Tom, but they decided that it was more likely she used a Love Potion to attract him. In any case, the two married, despite public disapproval over "the squire's son running off with the tramp's daughter." At some point in their relationship, Merope became pregnant.[3]

It was believed that Merope eventually stopped whatever enchantment she had used on Tom in the hopes that he had truly fallen in love with her since, or would at least remain with her for the sake of their unborn child.[3]

Abandonment

"Tom Riddle left her while she was still pregnant... I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby's sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son."

Riddle reacted with revulsion to the truth of his relationship with Merope and fled back to Little Hangleton. He claimed to have been "taken in" by Merope, which may have been an allusion to her being a witch, or to her methods of attracting him. He did not state specifically that she used magic to seduce him, for the fear of being thought insane. Rumours in the town claimed that Merope had lied about being pregnant. Riddle's son himself came to believe that his father abandoned Merope solely because he discovered she was a witch.[4]

Whatever the reason, Riddle abandoned his wife, and she was left impoverished, broken-hearted, and alone in London. Soon after, she gave birth to a son she named Tom Marvolo Riddle, after the baby's father and Merope's own father, Marvolo Gaunt. Merope died shortly after giving birth and the child was left in the care of a Muggle orphanage.[5]

Death

In 1943,[1] sixteen-year-old Tom Marvolo Riddle, who would later take on the alias Lord Voldemort, ventured to Little Hangleton to investigate his heritage. He learned the details of his parents' union from his uncle Morfin Gaunt and sought revenge on whom he saw as the man who abandoned him before his birth. Tom Marvolo Riddle murdered his father and paternal grandparents with the Killing Curse and framed Morfin for the crime.[6] His corpse was described as having a "look of terror upon his face. "[7]

Post-mortem

"You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father. A Muggle and a fool.. very like your dear mother. But they both had their uses, did they not? Your mother died to defend you as a child... and I killed my father, and see how useful he has proved himself in death..."

Tom Riddle Sr. was buried in a Little Hangleton graveyard along with his parents, and their deaths were not at all mourned by the townspeople due to their being very unpopular. Tom's murder was used by his son to transform Marvolo Gaunt's Ring into his second Horcrux.[8] Voldemort seemed to see this murder as retribution for the miserable existence his father had condemned him to in his abandonment, as well as his own triumph over his "filthy Muggle" heritage.[4] Voldemort made use of his father's murder again in 1995, when Peter Pettigrew used a bone from Tom Riddle Sr.'s grave to make the potion that resurrected him.[9]

Physical appearance

His son, who was noted to look very much like him

Tom Riddle Sr. was a very handsome man jet black-haired, dark-eyed, and pale.[3] His son, Tom Marvolo Riddle, was noted to be the spitting image of him in his early years, and with his son being tall for his age suggests that the elder Tom is also tall.[5]

Personality and traits

Cecilia: "My God, what an eyesore! Couldn't your father have that hovel cleared away, Tom?"

Tom Riddle Sr.: "It's not ours. Everything on the other side of the valley belongs to us, but that cottage belongs to an old tramp called Gaunt, and his children. The son's quite mad, you should hear some of the stories they tell in the village... Don't look at it, Cecilia, darling."

The son of wealthy parents, Tom Riddle Sr. was something of a snob and rather callous.[3] When he and Cecilia were riding by the Gaunt shack on one occasion, Bob Ogden ran out, having been terrorised by the Gaunts, and stumbled into Riddle's horse. Both Riddle and Cecilia "roared with laughter" at this.[3] Very handsome and wealthy, Riddle boasted to his companion about how much property his family owned. Tom also abandoned his pregnant wife and apparently made no attempts to find out what happened to his child, despite being made aware of Merope's pregnancy before abandoning her.[3]

Tom was described to be ruder and more snobbish than his parents, who were both very mean as it was. This made Tom immensely unpopular in Little Hangleton, and the villagers were not sorry for his demise.[7]

It appears that his son had inherited many of Tom's prejudiced and bigoted ways. However, his son's form of prejudice was on a much more massive scale and was directed at Muggle-borns, Muggles and blood traitors.

Relationships

Parents

Tom's relationship with his parents was most likely a good one, since all three of them shared the few types of things the Riddle family was described as: Muggles, wealthy, rude and snobbish. Also, when Tom abandoned Merope in London and returning home, they were most likely happy to see their son come back from "having been taken in" by Merope.

Merope Gaunt

Tom originally looked down and made fun of Merope and her family because of their poverty, their strange shabby appearances, and their exceptional disabilities. Merope then used a Love Potion on Tom, making them go on a runaway marriage. Merope eventually became pregnant with Tom's child. However, as Albus Dumbledore had theorised, Merope, who was deeply, truly in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means and made the choice to stop giving him the potion, convincing herself that he might have truly fallen in love with her of his own accord, or even if he had not, he would stay with her for their child's sake. When Tom awoke from his enslavement, he revolted in what Merope did to him and immediately left his wife and unborn son, claiming to the townspeople of Little Hangleton he had been "hoodwinked" and "taken in".[3] Merope was left heartbroken and lost her will to live as a result, and later died giving birth to his son, naming him after her lost love, wishing that he would look like his father.[5]

—Tom Marvolo Riddle, after revealing himself as Lord Voldemort to Harry Potter[src]

During Tom Marvolo Riddle's time at Hogwarts, he originally believed that Tom Sr. was a wizard. He later found out that it was his mother, not father, that had magical abilities.[6] He grew to harbour a passionate and ultimately deadly hatred for his father, blaming him for abandoning him and his mother. His hatred led him to resent the entire race of Muggles.[4] He tracked down his father one summer, during his Hogwarts years, and killed him and his family. The blame was placed on Morfin Gaunt.[6] Tom Jr. used this death to make Marvolo Gaunt's ring a Horcrux.[8]

Both Tom Sr. and his son were obsessively loved by someone. Tom Sr. was loved by Merope, who became desperate enough to use a Love Potion on him. Lord Voldemort was obsessively loved by one of his Death Eaters, Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix was so eager to please him that she would "prune" her "family tree" by murdering her niece.

Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt

It is unknown if Tom Riddle Sr. had met Marvolo Gaunt and Morfin Gaunt in person, but if he had (since he was telling his companion Cecilia about them), then it is perfectly known that Riddle considered them tramps and they considered him a piece of filth because he was a Muggle and despised him even more when Merope Gaunt (Marvolo's daughter and Morfin's sister) married him. Morfin once attacked Tom by hexing him for attracting Merope's attention.

Behind the scenes

Tom Marvolo Riddle thought that Tom left Merope because he hated magic and left her after she revealed herself to be a witch, which is the reason Tom Marvolo Riddle hated Muggles.[4] He never learned the real reason why Tom left Merope.[10]

Oddly, the replica of the Riddle family grave at The Making of Harry Potter lists Tom Riddle Sr. with the name of his son (Tom Marvolo Riddle), and also places his date of birth at 1915, ten years after the version used in the final film. To further add to confusion, the replica gravestone lists Thomas and Mary Riddle as having died in 1913, two years before their son is listed to have been born, and a full thirty years before the birth of their grandson and killer, Tom Marvolo Riddle (the final film correctly mentions their deaths as taking place in 1943).[11]